this has become more of an outlet for me to post interesting things... not that i've quit thinking about them, but i just have less time to write out those thoughts.  for the next few posts i'll be sharing some quotes from a book entitled "Living More With Less" by Doris Janzen Longacre.  She also put out the More With Less Cookbook and is a Mennonite who gathered practical suggestions and opinions from Mennonites around the world on the topic of simple living.  The More With Less Cookbook is excellent, as is this book.  while this book was published almost 30 years ago, a lot of its content is still applicable and, i would argue, becoming increasingly relevant as our resources are becoming depleted and we fail to be the faithful stewards God has called us to be.  enjoy, ponder, do something:

“What if we became as concerned with our overdevelopment or maldevelopment as we are with the underdevelopment of poor nations? Would they have anything to say? Could they help?”

“Believing a connection to [the unbalanced consumption of resources and distribution of wealth] but refusing to accept guilt is one way to back off. How-to books on pop psychology of the past fifteen years do not look fondly upon feeling guilty or raising those feelings in anyone else. But what if you are guilty? Is there no damage to the psyche of one who clearly recognizes wrong in specific actions, but refuses to accept responsibility? Can we squash down the guilt and blame on another? Statements like, 'This meeting, or this book, or that person, or the poor of the world make me feel guilty' bear careful scrutiny. From where comes the guilt? From those who are poor? That's blaming the victim. From those who shared the information? Or from us who live the way we do?

Certainly there are those who carry guilt out of its useful function and into paralyzing complexes. But to live as most of us do in North America, then to study world poverty and our role in it, and to come away without seeing a need for forgiveness and change - that is unthinkable.”